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Copy 1 

Report of the Work 

of the 

Cleveland Americanization 
Committee 

of the 

Mayor's Advisory War Board 
July 1917 -July 1918 



A MERICA has so recently awakened to 
/\ the necessity of having a country whose 
jC ^ people are united by a connuon language, 
customs and ])urposes that all work along this 
line has been more or less experimental. The 
Cleveland Americanization Committee started 
out with a desire to accomplish certain results 
but left the methods to be determined as the 
work developed. Through this elasticity the 
activities have gradually brought to light certain 
principles as l)eing most effective in accomplish- 
ing the end. We are therefore, in tiiis report, 
giving them precedence over the activities them- 
selves, because we regard them as fundamental 
in building a permanent foundation for future 
work. 

At first it was necessary to spend much time 
visiting the leaders of the various races so as to 
allay very natural su.spicions as to our designs. 
For years because of our indifference, our foreign- 
l)orn residents had become segregated in groups 
with their own stores, schools and community 
life. Suddenly with the war came a heralding 
in the newspapers of the need of stamping out 
this un-American condition accompanied at times 
by rather hastily considered statements as to the 
radical measures deemed to be necessary. The.se 
statements created in the nund of the foreign- 
born uncertain feeling as to their citizenship 
status. Because of their unfamiliarity with 
American ways it seemed to them that arbitrary 
compulsion, which they came to America to avoid, 
was again looming over them. 

Si)eaking of the relation of the two great groups 
of native-born and foreign-born Americans to 
each other. President Wilson says: "It has been 



a very touching thought to nae sometimes to 
think of the hopes which have dra'mi these peo- 
ple to America. And I can imagine that they 
have expected here something ideal in the treat- 
ment that they will receive, something ideal in 
the laws which they would have to live under, 
and it has caused me many a time to turn upon 
myself the eye of examination to see whether 
there burned in me the true light of the American 
spirit which they expected to find here. So my 
interest in this movement is as much an interest 
in ourselves as in those whom we are trying to 
Americanize, because if we are genuine Ameri- 
cans they cannot avoid the infection." 

To give the native born a sympathetic under- 
standing of the backgrounds of the foreign-born, 
their political inspirations and social gifts ready 
for this country to make use of, we have secured 
the services of Mrs. Eleanor E. Ledbetter, who 
for some years has been the very successful di- 
rector of a foreign branch library, to make a 
survey of the races represented in Cleveland. 
The article on the Slovak race is now in the 
printers' hands and work on the Jugo-Slavs has 
already been begun. 

If we are sincerely desirous of having all of our 
people learn to speak English, because we recog- 
nize its value both to them and to us, we must 
take into consideration their physical and economic 
situation and arrange the classes accordingly. 
During our long period of neglect they have not 
been led to feel the necessity of learning Enghsh. 
So far as we know, there is only one factory which 
demands the learning of English as a condition 
of employment. Those who after a hard day's 
work have the ambition that prompts them to 
hunt up a class in an evening school need not be 
considered here. They are already Americans 
in spirit. The great majority of our non-English 
speaking residents, however, need urging. Es- 
pecially is this true if they are illiterate in their 
own language. The most satisfactory time for 
the classes, therefore, is as a part of the day's 
work. 

The Extension Department of the Board of 
Education, in charge of Dr. A. W. Castle, and 
his assistant, Dr. E. P. Wiles, has the direction 
of all the English and Citizenship classes for the 
adult foreign-born. They wished to try the ex- 
periment of putting their teachers, specially 
trained in Americanization work, into factory 
classes. Our part was to serve as the contact 
between the factory managers and the Board of 



I 

V» ^=====1======= 

Education and to help organize these classes. 
'^v Because it was a new experiment we did not seek 
^ to lay down rigid rules for their regulation. We 

arranged the classes in whatever way seemed to 
:;j suit best the conditions of each factory, thinking 
.• that the most successful one would demonstrate 
^ the best method. 

During the year, classes were organized in the 

following industrial plants, one hour a day, two 

days a week for English, and in some classes an 

extra day for citizenship. 

American Can Co. 'Cleveland Provision Co. — 
American Stove Co. part time 

*H. Black Co. — part time Cleveland Worsted Mills 

Cleveland Akron Bag Co. Co. 

Cleveland Hardware Co. 'Columbian Hardware Co. 
Cohn-Goodman Co. Emscheimer-Fischel Co. 

'Cleveland Fruit Juice Co. — Federal Knitting Co. 

part time *Kaynee Factory. — part time 

'Ferry Cap & Screw Co. — *I,ampson & Sessions Co. — 

full time full time 

*L. N. Gross & Co.— full time 'Willard Storage Battery Co. 

'Globe Stamping Co.— full 'Foster Nut & Bolt Co.— 

time will pay part time 

'Grasselli Chemical Co. — 'National Screw & Tack Co. 

part time — full time 

'Joseph & Feiss Co. — con- 
dition of employment 
'(The company paid for either half or all of the time 
taken by the classes.) 

Total enrollment— 698. 

The most practical time was found to be at the 
end of the day's work, ranging from 3 to 6 o'clock. 
Only two plants held their classes at noon. Some 
incentive to the learning of English either re- 
garding it a condition of employment or paying 
part of the men's time, is a great stimulus, at 
least until the employees have become convinced 
in their own minds of its value. To demon- 
strate this value to them and make the vocabulary 
acquired applicable to their work, the teachers 
have co-operated with plant managers and fore- 
men, giving shop terms to the students as soon 
as they were able to understand. This links 
their study immediately with their work and 
makes the advantages much more apparent. 

There are a great many men and women of 
foreign birth who feel diffident about going to 
the public schools. Some are ashamed to be 
seen going to school at their age. ]\Iany will 
not bother to go if it takes them out of their way. 
To meet these objections, da.sses have been lo- 
cated wherever a sufficient number of non-Eng- 
lish speaking people could be gathered together, 
the teachers being regular Board of Education 
teachers under Dr. Castle's supervision, the same 



■ 3 . - 



as in the public schools. The foreign churches 
which have furnished convenient locations for 
such classes are as follows: 

North Congregational Church. 
Holy Trinity Church (Rumanian). 
St. George Church (Lithuanian). 
St. Ladislas Church (Slovak). 
St. Mary of the Nativity Church (Slovak). 
St. Wendelin Church (Slovak). 
Hungarian Reformed Church. 
St. Paul's Church (Croatian). 
St. Emerick's Church (Hungarian). 
St. LawTcnce Church (Slovenian). 
St. Theodosius Church (Russian Orthodox). 
Church of the Holy Ghost (Ruthenian). 
Hungarian Lutheran Orphanage. 
Total enrollment 495. 

Verj' successful classes were also organized at 
Charity and Lakeside Hospitals and at the East 
End Neighborhood House, with a total enroll- 
ment of 222. 

It has been a great problem at Camp Sherman, 
Chillicothe, to deal with the soldiers who speak 
no English — as many as 3000 such men being 
there at one time, and so there seemed a great 
opportunity in Cleveland to organize "hurry-up" 
classes for drafted men, that they might acquire 
a slight knowledge, at least, of English before 
they left. The time was short but a beginning 
was made among class 1-A men at Fullerton, 
South High and St. Mary's Schools with a total 
enrollment of 116. The Y. M. C. A. did the 
organizing as they wished to form a contact with 
these men before they went to camj) and because 
the educational work at the various cantonments 
is under their supervision. 

The Board of Education did not feel authorized 
to use its funds for the conducting of the special 
clas.ses located in private institutions such as 
churches, hospitals, social settlements, foreign 
halls, etc., so because during this crisis we wished 
to reach immediately every available group of 
non-English speaking people, the Mayor's Ad- 
visory War Committee appropriated a sum suf- 
ficient to do this, the teachers being the regular 
Board of Education teachers trained in Ameri- 
canization work and supervised by Dr. Castle's 
staff. This same fund paid for the "hurry-up" 
classes. 

Dr. Raymond Moley of the Department of 
Political Science, Western Reserve University, 
and a member of our Committee, was given 



charge of the Citizenship classes for adult for- 
eigners, including the training of teachers and 
preparation of material. His was a new con- 
ception of training for citizenship, aiming to 
take in not only the material necessary for the 
securing of naturalization papers, but also to in- 
clude a discussion of all institutions and organi- 
zations which combine in forming our social 
structure. This broader citizenship work was 
carried on in over 30 classes held in connection 
with the regular English classes, the enrollment 
being over 900 with an average attendance of 600. 
Besides these classes, special naturalization classes 
were maintained for the specific purpose of pre- 
paring men for the naturalization examination. 
In order to recruit these classes, individual 
notices were sent each month to men whose two 
year period after filing their fu-st papers together 
with the five year's residence in the United States 
had elapsed. More than 3000 such letters were 
sent out during the past school j^ear. Special 
attention was given to such men as had failed in 
the examinations before the Federal Examiner. 

For use in these classes Prof. Moley wrote a small 
booklet entitled "Lessons in American Govern- 
ment." It is an interesting fact that whereas 
the attendance in citizenship classes in former 
years diminished very materially by Spring, this 
year the attendance increased from 150 to 200 
during the winter and to 400 after May 1st when 
Prof. Moley arranged with the Naturalization 
Examiner to hold the examination at the class 
rooms, eliminating the waste caused by the trips 
which the men made to the examiner during the 
day. The value of this work assumes a larger 
significance when it is realized that heretofore a 
man often tried many times before he passed, an 
average of 80 per cent of those taking the examin- 
ation failing. It has been found that the loss of 
wages because of futile trips amounted to thous- 
ands of dollars a year and what was far more 
serious, that the repeated failures directly trace- 
able to poor instruction led many men who would 
have made good citizens to give up in despair. 
In happy contrast with the former condition 
stands the record of Prof. Moley's courses — -90 
per cent of those who took them passing their 
naturalization examinations satisfactorily. 

Four special citizenship classes for women were 
formed from the foreign auxiliaries of the 
Women's Suffrage Party and held in the foreign 
halls which had been their regular meeting places. 



Perhaps the most important evidence of prog- 
ress in this year's work in Americanization classes 
will be obtained from a consideration of the vari- 
ous locations rather than the numbers. Certain 
classes established more or less as experiments 
worked out very well, and with their successful 
results will lead to a tremendous increase in next 
year's enrollment. In order to give a complete 
view of the work, all Americanization classes 
are listed below, although in the case of the regular 
evening schools the only part played by the 
Americanization Committee was in advertising 
them. 

Total Registration: 

a. Regular evening schools (not includ- 

ing citizenship) 3457 

b. Citizenship classes 974 

c. Factory classes 698 

d. Hospital and settlement classes. . . . 222 

e. Church classes 495 

f . Foreign Hall classes 75 

Total 5921 

Number of students who were American born 79 
Number of students who were Foreign born . . 5842 

Total 5921 

Number of teachers 105 

Most of the classes were composed of both 
men and women which seems the natural and 
satisfactory way. The following races were 
represented : 



Armenian 


Moravian 


Austrian 


Negro 


Bohemian 


Norwegian 


Croatian 


Polish 


Danish 


Portuguese 


Dutch 


Rumanian 


Finnish 


Russian 


German 


Ruthenian 


Greek 


Serbian 


Hungarian 


Slovak 


Italian 


Slovenian 


Jewish 


Spanish 


Lithuanian 


Swedish 


Syi 


ian 



Because the problem of teaching Enghsh and 
Citizenship to adults is so different from the 
teaching of children. Dr. Castle wished to de- 
velop a corps of teachers who would be specialists 
in this work. He consequently carried on an 
Americanization Institute during the weeks of 
September 17 and 24. 1917, which all prospective 
teachers of Americanization were required to 
attend. This was followed by a weekly lesson 
for all who received appointments as teachers. 
At this Institute Dr. Castle gave the direct 
method of teaching English, and Prof. Moley 
the new conception of citizenship. The Ameri- 
canization Committee issued posters announcing 
it and distributed .500 application blanks to the 
alumnae of Western Reserve University, Normal 
School, members of the College Club, etc. Then 
for the "America-First" week held during the 
last week of the Institute to advertise the open- 
ing of the night schools, the Americanization 
Committee printed and distributed hundreds of 
posters to the foreign churches, societies, halls, 
saloons, libraries and schools. Fifty thousand 
handbills were given the school children to take 
home to their parents and 15,000 special hand- 
bills for women were distributed by the workers 
of all social organizations having home visitors. 

The Cleveland Public Library has given us 
valuable co-operation in all our activities, be- 
sides carrying on the Americanizing work in 
which it is constantly engaged at foreign branches. 
It has been working among our foreign-born for 
many years, directing their reading in both Eng- 
lish and their mother tongue; urging them to at- 
tend English classes and even going into their 
homes to make them better acquainted with 
what is best in America. No more effective 
social workers can be found than the librarians 
at these branches. 

Many of the foreign born, handicapped by 
ignorance of English and without any knowledge 
of our customs, are bewildered by the technical- 
ities of the many new war measures. To assist 
them by interpreting these measures in their own 
language an Americanization War Information 
Bureau was established at the Old Court House 
with a Secretary and Assistants who spoke the 
principal languages. Perhaps the most valuable 
aid was that given during the filling out of the 
questionnaires when foreign speaking volunteers 
were secured by the Bureau not only for work at 
its office but to assist many of the local Draft 
Boards. With this questionnaire service comes 



the aiding; of foreign born residents of Cleveland 
who originally registered in other cities through- 
out the country. Another service of the Bureau 
is the translation of passports, birth certificates, 
etc., and the referring of cases needing special 
help to other agencies such as tlie Associated 
Charities, Attorneys' War Service Board and 
Legal Aid Society. All such services are free. 

The most important services rendered from 
July 1917 to July 1918 were as follows: 

Draft Information 6,148 

Questionnaires 16,901 

Affidavits 9,436 

First Paper Applications 1,093 

Referred to Public and Social 

Agencies 4,012 

While many women came in for assistance at 
the same time as their husbands, it was found 
that the average foreign woman at home was not 
reached in regard to her problems. So in co- 
operation with the International Institute of the 
Y. W. C. A., office hours for information were 
established twice a week in the St. Clair, Tremont, 
and Longwood Schools. Each Institute worker 
spoke the language of the neighborhood and did 
a great deal of home visiting, trying to instill 
into the women confidence so that they would 
come to the school for assistance. The two 
main objects were to give them information re- 
garding classes in English and to serve as inter- 
preters between the principals and mothers re- 
garding the problems of children. 

Many of our foreign born residents are planning 
to return to Europe after the war and some to 
stay permanently, hoping to take part in a free 
country whose language and customs they have 
been trained for generations to preserve for just 
such a possibility. In most cases they do not 
realize the conditions which will actually exist. 
Some hope to go back to find out what has be- 
come of their relatives and property and to bring 
their families here if they are still alive. In 
order to crystallize in the minds of the parents of 
our school children the reasons for their coming 
to America and its advantages over their former 
country we instituted an essay contest on the 
subject "Why My Parents Came to America." 
We wished to start actual conversation at home. 
The contest was limited to children in the 6-A 
Grade in public and parochial schools. Nineteen 
hundred and twenty-six essays were submitted. 
In the majority of cases they showed the results 
of real discussion and what was more valuable, 



though unanticipated, they revealed a new anil 
keen appreciation on the part of the children of 
the hardships their parents had endured and 
their braver.y in coming to a new land about 
which they knew only rumors. Thirty prizes 
in different denominations of thrift stamps were 
awarded the prize wiimers, the presentation being 
made at an enthusiastic public meeting held in 
the Council Chamber of the City Hall. 

On the Fourth of July in conformity with the 
general plans of President Wilson and the Com- 
mittee on Public Information we developed Cleve- 
land's first Loyalty Parade, one of the largest 
and most successful public demonstrations ever 
held here. It not only gave those of foreign 
birth an opportunity to publicly acknowledge 
their loyalty to the United States, but gave 
those of native birth an appreciation of what a 
large and earnest part of our population is made 
up of people who came here from foreign lands. 

There is one phase of work which has not yet 
been taken up by this Committee, because it 
seems a national rather than a local problem. 
We have found on every hand a great need for 
books in foreign tongues recounting in simple 
language the history of the United States and 
the lives of our great men. Such books would 
serve to make many of our foreign-born good 
Americans in spirit even before they learn English 
and would give them the motive to learn so as to 
have their full share in the opportunities that this 
country offers. 

It would be a stimulus also, if there were avail- 
able lives of citizens of foreign birth who have 
made good in America. 

In all our work we have had the hearty co- 
operation of the various agencies closely associ- 
ated with the foreign born people of Cleveland, 
the Board of Education, Public Library, Social 
Settlements, Museum of Art, Patriotic Organi- 
zations, War Committees, Y. M. C. A., 
Y. W. C. A. and the Federation of Women's 
Clubs. We feel that we have laid a solid founda- 
tion, for, besides the concrete activities in which 
the foreign born have taken part, we are receiving 
from them expressions of confidence in our sin- 
cerity and of a desire on their part to join with us. 

We welcome their co-operation for it is our 
conviction that in the process of amalgamation 
every single foreign born group can contribute 
to our common American life some elements that 
will make it richer and better for all of us. 

HELEN BACON, Secretary. 



Executive Committee 

Mr. Harold T. Clark, 

Chairynan 

Mrs. J. N. Fleming, 
Vif-e-Chairman 



Miss Grace B. Drake 
Mr. Ernest Joseph 
Judge Manuel Levine 
Dr. E 



Mrs. Roger G. Perkins 
Mr. Carl P. Vitz 
Mrs. C. W. Webb 
P. Wiles 



General Committee 



Mrs. E. H. Baker 
Mrs. Willard Beahan 
Miss Blanche Beattie 
Mrs. W. C. Boyle 
Mr. Edward Bushnell 
Mr. A. W. Castle 
Miss Alice F. Cook 
Miss Bertha E. Christiansen 
Prof. J. E. Cutler 
Miss Annie S. Cutter 
Miss Annie P. Dingman 
Mr. Otto K. Dorn 
Miss Florence Evans 
Miss Hazel Foster 
Mr. Hugh M. Fullerton 
Miss Alice P. Gannett 
Miss Mary Gilson 
Miss Edith Glenn 
Miss Bell Greve 
Miss Helen Hanchette 
Mrs. E. L. Harris 
Mr. George B. Harris 
Mrs. E. B. Haserodt 
Mrs. Ray A. Hauserman 
Mr. R. J. Hoddinott 
Mrs. Helen Horvath 
Mrs. Sarah E. Hyre 
Mrs. Stella Jacoby 
Rev. William A. Kane 



Miss Katherine Kennedy 
Mrs. Sherman C. Kingsley 
Deaconess E. C. Klein 
Miss Hedwig Kosbab 
Mrs. E. C. Kraus 
Rev. Hubert J. Le Blond 
Mrs. Eleanor E. Ledbetter 
Miss C. Ludwig 
Mrs. E. C. McCullough 
Prof. H. A. Miller 
Mrs. Mary W. Mills 
Miss Margaret Mitchell 
Prof. Raymond Moley 
Mr. DeLo Mook 
Miss Sarah J. Neuhart 
Mrs. P. C. OBrien 
Mrs. Charles Orr 
Miss Mary E. Parker 
Mrs. S. S. Saffold 
Mrs. Henry L. Sanford. 
Miss Bertha Seebeck 
Mrs. E. M. Spreng 
Mrs. L. Ernest Sunderland 
Miss Blanch Swainhardt 
Mrs. Howard S. Thayer 
Miss Augusta Thompson 
Mrs. Orson Upp 
Mrs. E. J. Weigel 
Mr. F. Allen Whiting 



Miss E. Louise Willmott 



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